Avoid Beginner Traps by Using my Sourdough Fermentation Roadmap 

my biggest recommendation (like #3) to new bakers is to not skimp on flour. if you buy random cheap supermarket flour (especially if its AP) and you try to make any kind of dough with a hydration higher than 60% its just gonna be a sticky mess that wont rise properly, and you'll bake a frisbee, no matter how much you stretch & fold or knead it.

Love all these tips. Great presentation. Thx.

There are some excellent tips and I've learned quite a lot from this. I like the simple explanation of how much leaven to use.

Thank you Phillip ❤️following from Trinidad and Tobago 🇹🇹.

very informative, Thank You, Phil,

Your channel is really helping me to 'read' my dough and starter and getting a feel for it instead of following standard recipes (which doesn't quite work for sourdough). It's just not an exact science. Thanks!

Hi, Philip.....there are a lot of us out there raising families that have very limited time to bake bread, and bake four to five loaves at one time... Was wondering if you would consider doing a video using a Kitchen Machine in which you bake multiple loaves at one time? Many of us would appreciate that.....THANK YOU! 🌷

Speaking of attention grabbing credentials, the images of the crust and crumb of the loaves in the beginning of this video are all you need to get my undivided attention and respect. I mean wow!

Nice one Philip! Interesting and informative.Thanks!

The room temperature here in Arizona is a huge factor. I’ve noticed that bulk fermentation is only taking 2-3 hours and the dough in the basket only takes about an hour. Thanks for sharing all this information! I appreciate you👍🏻😊

Amazing Videos! I would like to know, do you have a link to the bowls that you use? Also what wood bench are you using to make you dough one, I see that you used it in both kitchens that you make videos in.

I love cooking and I do my own home canning every summer, but this sourdough has been a huge challenge! I also live where the seasons change in the Southeastern US, and I can see already that it's really going to be different baking this summer. So far I've baked at least 6 loaves and my last one was the best so far, however it's not a home run! I am hanging in there, but not feeling very encouraged at this point!

I haven't delved deeper (YET) but do you have this spreadsheet available to download? It is fantastic!

Might you share the free recipe calculator described in the video?

Dear Phil, I have a question regarding baking it on a regular home oven. I have one that can't exactly be set to a fixed temperature and the heat comes only from below. The other day I did my first sourdough following your recipes adn turnt out amazing except that the crumb couldn't develop as much as in I had to take it out a few minutes earlier because the lower part of the bread would get burnt. I don't have the stone you have or a pan I just covered the bread and used a regular pizza circular pan. Do you have any advice for this? Sorry if it isn't as clear as I don't know the exact terminology for all this words. Thank you in advance

Quite honestly, altitude matters as well. I used to make great bread (or at least not door stops or weapons of tooth destruction) when I lived on the coast. Went up the hill, and have had a whole bunch of trouble getting something I'd regard as edible. (Other factors would be the oven differences too). Even bought a 'bread maker' which now sits gathering dust, because the Dutch Oven method at least worked better. But altitude of the kitchen, where in the world you live, apart from humidity/temperature, can make a difference.

Where did you get your peel from ?

I've cultured a great starter over several weeks so have cooked my first loaves this week using your downloaded calculator and the overnight method. The oven spring is getting better so I'm now starting to experiment with different ways of baking - I'm going to try my Dutch oven tomorrow. My question is, can I part-bake a loaf, freeze it then complete baking when I want fresh bread? My Italian partner eats lots of bread but I don't want to be baking every day he's visiting me in Portugal. I've frozen fully-cooked loaves but would like to know if it's possible to recreate a freshly-baked bread by freezing after it's partly baked. Thanks for your great videos, I stumbled across your channel and wasn't even thinking about baking bread, let alone sourdough until I watched you 😅

I am still trying to nail the best way to feed my starter . So I hear that yours daily but more specifically every 12h ? or 24h ?and at what ratio ? temperature ? At a 1:5:5 ratio at 20*C mine has already began to recede after 10 hours . Any suggestions ? I bake once or twice a week . And if it can help I bought a sourdough proofer with a range of 5*C ad 50*C Looking forward for your reply !

Can you clarify. A young starter. Does it refer to its age from the very first dairy of “creating” a starter or one that has had regular feedings.

May I ask what do you use to cover two loafs of bread in the oven for the first 20 minutes please? I'm struggling to find cover big enough for that :(

Hi there how big is your proofing basket? I bought an 8" but it is really small.

I’ve been making amazing sourdough focaccia recently! I’ve developed a perfect method almost immediately (adapting from a few recipes). It is easy and completely delicious! I look forward to seeing you make a focaccia video soon! I top with Kalamata olives and fresh rosemary from my garden. You’re in Italy and I look forward to seeing how you make focaccia! By the way, I’m in the south of Spain and it’s already quite hot here!

When using my freshly ground hard white flour, I'm having a problem with it rising similar to using strong bread flour. Have you experimented with it?

Thank you for this video. As with your videos I've watched, very educational. I've always been curious as to how one determines what n% the dough has risen. How do you know it is 75% and not 60% or 80% or 74.5% (the last one was a silly number!)? The below may explain a little more my thinking processes. If you have a cube container and it is marked for cups/ml and you put some water in at say the 2 cup mark. And you leave it alone and find that when you have come back 2 hours later, the water is at the 3 cup mark, it is easy to determine that it "rose" 50%. But, a bowl is not a cube and dough rising is not water. When you consider that volume of a bowl includes squaring a number and multiplying by pi, seeing that the dough has risen 75% is not a simple matter...like the cube. And besides the bowl's volume calculation, you have the dome of the risen dough to consider. I can tell that it has not risen or it's risen a lot, but how do you know it is 75% and not 60%? Lawrence

What flour are you using for your sourdough baking?

When feeding your culture, how much flour and water should be used. How runny should the mixture be, I.e. the consistency of honey.

Is there a way to make the crust soft on sourdough bread? My husband has bad teeth & can’t eat hard crust on the homemade variety. Just wondering.

There is no replacement for the experience of making an attempt. The best way to make the most of that experience is to pay attention and take notes. “Gee whiz boss, you must have bought defective lumber or something. I cut this 2x4 three times and it’s still too short!”. Don’t be that guy.

Hi, there! Could you be so kind and, why do you block access to your site for your followers from Russia?